I attended my first Hamfest this past weekend since my father and I went to the Rochester NY Hamfest back in the 1980s. I went with a wad of cash in my pocket and a shopping list, and came back with the wad of cash intact (minus a few dollars for snacks and coax adapters). It wasn’t that the Hamfest was disappointing — it just didn’t have what I was looking for.
The flea market area was probably 100×100 feet and held perhaps 60 or so vendors selling mostly abused vintage equipment from the 1960s. I was surprised that more modern equipment wasn’t offered for sale. The newest equipment seemed to be from the late 1980s. Lots of Kenwood 400-series rigs with bashed in cases. There were several folks selling used HP spectrum analyzers for $1200 (which was interesting since a new one can be had for that price today from Rigol — pretty bad noise floor, however). I was expecting lots of microwave stuff, but there was none to be found. My search for coax adapters was rewarded with a paper bag full for $20.
Inside, the “professional” area was quite a bit smaller. I’m guessing there might have been 30 booths. The big manufacturers were there: Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood, Flex and Elecraft (no Ten-Tec), plus a couple of the larger internet distributors (AES and HRO). I was looking for bargains for new LMR-400 coax jumpers but didn’t find any. I did stumble across a “Flag Pole Buddy” pole mount intended for the RV market. However it can be installed on a deck post as well, and seems ideal for holding my BuddiPole mast. (I usually bungle-cord it to the deck post, which causes my wife stress because it looks so bad.)
In terms of booth activity, the Icom booth was deserted, and for the most part so was the Kenwood booth. It was great to see the reps there, but there just wasn’t interest. There was some minimal activity at the Yaesu booth, mostly surrounding the 5000 and 9000. The best comment overheard (concerning the FTDX9000) was the following: “Why is it so big and heavy?” — “So you feel like you are getting something for your $12,000.” I guess so. It is a huge box — very wide, very deep, quite tall, and a heavy 64 pounds (without the power supply). The Flex people had pretty good attendance, with many people asking about the sample of the Flex 6700 on display (non-working, just a model).
In terms of activity, the Elecraft booth, the largest of the show, was absolutely mobbed. You couldn’t get near Eric Swartz. Lots of folks were buying K3s on the spot (Eric commented that Saturday set a sales record: “People were in a buying mood.”). I actually manned the booth for about an hour and a half in the mid afternoon (along with several other volunteers) to give Eric a chance to attend a QRP meeting. I lusted for the working model of the KAT500 (Eric says it will be out by the end of September if the parts arrive on time). And, as usual, there was absolute denial on many levels concerning a mythical “K4”. “No PCBs exist, no schematics exist — we keep improving the K3 and updating our customers for free.”.
As for the ARRL New England Convention, it was pretty disappointing. While staff members were there, including CEO David Sumner, there just wasn’t much going on. The New England Director, Tom Frenaye, gave an hour long forum talk concerning ARRL activities. Unlike conventions I had attended in the 70s and 80s, the crowd was sedate. Nobody was standing up and shouting — which either means the ARRL is doing OK, or nobody cares (I suspect the latter). I was probably personally responsible for half the questions (concerning the recent FCC position on homeowner association restrictions on antennas, and LotW). They did demonstrate an IOS application for the QST e-reader at their booth and said it should be out at the end of September. They announced that the next New England Convention, in 2014, will be held in Hartford. Of course that is the 100th anniversary of the ARRL. It will be fun to see those plans evolve.
Overall, I had a nice time at Boxboro and would go again. I think Hamfests have been impacted by the economy, and the internet. You sure can buy almost anything used/surplus through eBay, and the big distributors own the market with their websites, so there is little reason for the massive Hamfests of the past. But it was still a fun time, especially when a friend of mine, K1SEA, showed up unexpected.
